Short Takes – 3-7-25

SpaceX rocket explodes, causing some flight delays. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Departures from Florida’s two airports — Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport — were delayed by up to 45 minutes due to “space launch debris.” ¶ The departures from the Philadelphia International Airport were delayed by upwards of half an hour for the same reason, according to the FAA data.”

Jeffries says GOP on its own to come up with votes to pass clean spending bill. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “It’s unclear if Democrats would oppose a CR unanimously — some moderates might cross the aisle to avoid appearances that they supported a government shutdown. And Jeffries stopped short of committing his opposition, saying Democrats would huddle next week to discuss their strategy after the details of the GOP bill are released.”

Private lunar lander may have fallen over while touching down near the moon’s south pole. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Launched last week, Athena was communicating with controllers more than 230,000 miles (375,000 kilometers) away and generating solar power, officials said. Mission managers worked to salvage the mission to see whether the drill can be turned on and the drone can be deployed to hop into a crater.”

Kennedy touts unconventional therapies for measles linked to disciplined Texas doctor. CNN.com article. Pull quote: ““He didn’t talk about the effectiveness and safety of the MMR vaccines, then pivoted to vitamin A and talking about how it was sanitation improvements that are bringing down measles rates in the US, and all this other kind of nonsense, and you just don’t do that kind of stuff in the middle of an epidemic,” Hotez said. “It was really disheartening to see that.””

The worst type of tornado hasn't hit the US for over a decade, perplexing experts. USAToday.com article. Pull quote: “Thus, the lack of EF5-rated tornadoes in the past decade is "less due to a weakening of tornadoes and likely attributable to (a) stricter application of the Enhanced Fujita scale."”

The world should prepare now for a potential H5N1 flu pandemic, experts warn. CEPI.net article. Pull quote: “The experts outlined three critical efforts that they said  should begin now in preparation for a potential wider human outbreak of H5N1: health authorities should establish a programme involving industry, governments, regulators and the scientific community to develop rapidly scalable pandemic flu vaccines, tests and treatments—with equitable access supported by a funded global framework; a comprehensive public communications programme should be initiated to address misinformation and hesitancy about vaccines; and governments should develop and transparently stress-test pandemic response plans to deal with a range of different disease scenarios and immunisation strategies.”

Industrial System Cyberattacks Surge as OT Stays Vulnerable. DarkReading.com article. Pull quote: “In tandem with the surge in attacker interest directed at OT systems, many of those systems remain vulnerable, according to a second report released last week by cyber-physical security firm Claroty. In a study of 1 million OT devices, the firm's researchers found that 40% of organizations have at least one asset insecurely connected to the Internet, and about a third (31%) have an asset connected to the Internet that also has a known exploited vulnerability (KEV).”

Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Wired.com article. Pull quote: “Partnering with local health authorities not only helps prevent the next epidemic, but it also makes sure that these virological samples are kept secure—“so it's not accidentally going to leak out of these public health facilities or not be stolen by a terrorist,” Robert Pope, director of Cooperative Threat Reduction at DTRA, explained in a 2022 interview.”

GNSS Signals Tracked On The Moon By LuGRE. Hackaday.com article. Pull quote: “Designed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ISA), the LuGRE [Lunar GNNS Receiver Experiment] payload’s goal was to demonstrate GNSS-based positioning, navigation and timing at the Moon. This successful demonstration makes it plausible that future lunar missions, whether in orbit or on the surface, could use Earth’s GNSS satellites to navigate and position themselves with. On the way to the lunar surface, LuGRE confirmed being able to track GNSS at various distances from the Earth.”